Communicating the emerging roles of librarians to teachers through a collaborative K-12 and higher education partnership

Ask teachers in a variety of schools what the role of a school librarian is, and you will get a different answer from every teacher you ask. Teachers' perceptions are based largely on the school librarians with whom they have interacted in their own schooling and in their careers as educators. Some see the school librarian as the person who checks out books. Others see the librarian as the person who gathers resources for units. As the profession seeks new recruits, how do prospective candidates view the job? As an answer to the workgroup's question, the authors of this article, representing library education and the K-12 librarians in the workgroup, formed a leadership team, brainstormed ideas with the DPI library consultant, and proposed a program called Wisconsin's Emerging Roles of Librarians (ERL). The ERL program was supported by the state's library education consortium, the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association, and the state Department of Public Instruction.